Kostas M. Sofoulis

Kostas M. Sofoulis was born on the island of Samos in 1937 and grew up in Athens. As a professor at the University of the Aegean, he spent most of his time in Mytilene, which he used to call his adopted homeland, but he dreamed of returning to Samos, where he spent several creative days each year. During his university years, he was an active member of the left-wing youth movement, and during the Greek military junta, he was imprisoned following a conviction by the Extraordinary Military Tribunal as a founding member of the Democratic Defense. For many years, he worked as a financial editor for the Economic Post, To Vima, and Ta Nea. He dedicated significant time to translating scientific economic manuals that laid the foundation for Neoclassical economic thought in Greece and contributed original scientific papers in the same direction. After the dictatorship, he was a visiting research fellow at the Stockholm School of Economics and later taught as the George Miller Chair Professor at the University of Illinois. He served as Deputy Governor of the National Land Bank of Greece and then as Governor of the Hellenic Industrial Development Bank (ETBA), having previously spent considerable time at the Public Corporation for Urban Planning and Housing (DEPOS) as Assistant General Director. In 1984, he became the President of the Administrative Committee of the University of the Aegean, dedicating almost exclusively five years to its organization. He served as a Member of Parliament for the Prefecture of Samos from 1993 to 1996. He passed away on January 23, 2020, at the age of 83.